Review of “Studying Lived Religion: Contexts and Practices”

Abstract

Nancy Ammerman is the principal proponent of using “lived religion” as an epistemological approach and Studying Lived Religion provides scholars with an agenda-setting statement arguing for and specifying what the approach entails. For Ammerman and others who have amplified the importance of “lived religion” (often termed “everyday religion”), the study of religion should be less about ritualized practices, established identities, institutional actors, or sets of beliefs about the sacred and the profane, but instead should be rooted in the everyday experiences of the sacred in the daily life of individuals. It is a tantalizing thesis, implying that secularization theory is off the mark because traditional indicators of religiosity and the importance of religion cannot tap the rapidly changing expressions of daily faith and meaning in societies where individualism dominates everyday life and institutions are often far removed from the lived experiences of the masses. Studying Lived Religion is mostly a handbook for those who embrace the critical assumption that extant methods and theories are woefully inadequate.